NCJ Number
233752
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2011 Pages: 23-45
Date Published
February 2011
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effect of race on the public's attitudes regarding the election of President Barack Obama and their perception of racial bias in the criminal justice system.
Abstract
Informed by a more nuanced racial threat theory, the current study investigates the relationship between the attitudes that African-Americans and Whites have about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America and whether they perceive that the police and the criminal justice system are biased against Blacks. The authors test four hypotheses using the 2008 Gallup Minority Rights and Relations/Black-White Social Audit Poll. The authors first hypothesize that Whites and African-Americans should substantially differ in their opinions about whether the police and the criminal justice system are biased against Blacks. Second, they posit that African-Americans and Whites should express substantially different opinions regarding the impact of Obama's election on race relations. Third, they hypothesize that the relationship between perceptions of criminal justice injustices and attitudes toward Obama's election should differ among Whites. The authors theorize that there should be a group of Whites committed racists who deny that the criminal justice system is biased against African-Americans and believe that the election of Barack Obama will worsen race relations. Fourth, the authors posit that African-Americans should nearly unvaryingly believe that the criminal justice system is racist. And, they hypothesize that African-American opinions about Barack Obama should have a negligible impact on their perceptions of whether the criminal justice system is racist. The results support these four hypotheses. Tables and references (Published Abstract)